About the performer

Joseph Kalichstein

Acclaimed for the heartfelt intensity and technical mastery of his playing, pianist JOSEPH KALICHSTEIN enthralls audiences throughout the United States and Europe, winning equal praise as orchestral soloist, recitalist, and chamber musician. He also is the first chamber music advisor to the Kennedy Center, an appointment that grew out of his close association with the Center over many seasons. He has given solo recitals there, appeared with the National Symphony Orchestra under Leonard Slatkin, and played a major role in chamber music festivals devoted to Brahms and Beethoven. His recent engagements include performances with the Pittsburgh Symphony, the Boston Symphony, the London Symphony, the Cincinnati Symphony, and return tours to Japan, Germany, and Scandinavia. He continues to record and to play in music capitals worldwide with the famed Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Piano Trio, with whom he appeared in the opening month of Carnegie's new Zankel Hall.

Born in Tel Aviv, Kalichstein came to the United States in 1962. His principal teachers included Joshua Shor in Israel and Edward Steuermann and Ilona Kabos at the Juilliard School. Prior to his 1969 Leventritt Award victory, he won the Young Concert Artists Auditions. As a result, he gave a heralded New York recital debut and, at the invitation of Leonard Bernstein, performed Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 4 with the New York Philharmonic in a nationally televised concert on CBS.

Kalichstein has collaborated with celebrated conductors including Daniel Barenboim, Pierre Boulez, James Conlon, Christoph von Dohnányi, James DePreist, Charles Dutoit, Lawrence Foster, Zubin Mehta, André Previn, Kurt Sanderling, Leonard Slatkin, Edo de Waart, David Zinman, George Szell, and Erich Leinsdorf. His orchestral engagements have included performances with the Atlanta, Baltimore, Barcelona, Boston, Chicago, Cincinnati, Detroit, Indianapolis, London, Montreal, National, NHK (Tokyo), Quebec, Pittsburgh, San Francisco, San Diego, Saint Louis, Seattle, Utah, and Vienna symphony orchestras; the Berlin, Helsinki, Israel, London, Los Angeles, New York, Oslo, Rotterdam and Stockholm philharmonic orchestras; the Cleveland, Hallé, and Minnesota orchestras; and the English, Scottish, Franz Liszt, and Saint Paul chamber orchestras. He has been enthusiastically received at the Helsinki, Edinburgh, Aspen, Prague, Tanglewood, Salzburg, and Verbier festivals, and was invited to Japan for the inauguration of Casals Hall and for performances with the Osaka Philharmonic and the Tokyo Metropolitan Orchestra.

Joseph Kalichstein's recent releases are The Romantic Piano on Audiofon (a two-disc set featuring works of C.P.E. Bach, Brahms, Mendelssohn, and Schubert), and Ellen Taafe Zwillich's Piano Concerto, part of Koch International's complete recording project of her work.